For climate and social justice, let us refuse the state of emergency!

Blockupy International supports movements’ actions in the streets of Paris

Blockupy Europe

Following the tragic events of 13 November in Paris and the French government’s decision to set and extend the “state of emergency”, it is now very clear: It is the freedom of movement and freedom of protest that is at stake.

In fact, the choice to ban demonstrations and people gatherings does not make any sense from the point of view of an effective “anti-terror security measure”.

Contrary, it is part of a “state of war” attitude and rhetoric from above, including the scapegoating of Muslim communities and of refugees, who are really escaping from the same Daesh terror in the Middle East. This governmental decision represents instead a dangerous limitation to the spaces of free and democratic expression. That is unacceptable!

To the many activists from all over the world that will join the civil society mobilizations and actions around the UN Climate Conference in Paris (COP21) Blockupy International is sending all its active support. Whatever the results of the COP21 might be, we already know that the same austerity policies, neoliberal economic and political rules and big corporations’ interests are among the most relevant contributors to global warming, climate change and their devastating consequences on the environment and communities’ life. It is a “social and climate state of emergency” we are living in.

The initiative from below by social movements all around the world is the only one, which could reverse the capitalist trend of destructing the planet. Debt, crisis of democracy, climate and social justice, austerity, migration are so crucial that we cannot leave them in the hands of politicians, corporations and warmongers. It is not the French government, which has the right to decide whether a multitude of people should or should not take the street of Paris.

Only the ability to break the rules of the current crises and the war-mongering, capitalist regime may create conditions for developing alternatives in a broader perspective of democracy, freedom and equality. We now need to raise our voices loudly in the squares during the COP21 conference and everywhere else. We need climate and social justice: Now more than ever.

Moreover, we are sending a strong message of solidarity to our sisters and brothers in the climate justice movements and in Paris: Right now at this moment, no matter where we are physically, we will be with you in Paris!

Let us not leave our cities to the “masters of war” whoever they are!

Let us take together the squares and the streets for climate and social justice!

Let us refuse the “state of emergency” and reject any restriction on our ability to act!

Blockupy International, November 25, 2015

The experience of Greece demonstrates the importance of building a pan European movement based on values of solidarity and deep democracy. Thank you for doing so much to organise this . Hilary Wainwright| Red Pepper magazine |

"This is sheer unbridled sadism. The Greek people are being punished for the failure of the neo-liberal consensus to avert the hideous and increasing forms of inequality which were always inscribed within its mandate. Nothing can explain why the most powerful countries of Europe should want to continue to impose on Greece policies which have brought it to the brink of collapse, other than the desire to precipitate a true collapse which they will then take as the proof that only their vicious system could have saved it - a self-defeating argument and a blatant lie. We can only speculate what unconscious links there must be between the forgiving of Germany's post-war debt, of which it remains the beneficiary to this day and without which it would not be in a position to dictate its terms, and its refusal to countenance any such forgiveness, let alone the paying of war reparations, to Greece. No logic can explain it. We have entered the realm of the cruellest social fantasy. The irony is that the whole of Europe will now suffer. But our hearts go out to the Greek people who will suffer - who are already suffering - most."

Jacqueline Rose, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities.

Étienne Balibar :"The struggle of the Greek people is the struggle of all European democrats, of all those who believe in human progress . In the case of a potential defeat all European peoples would pay the price. In the case of a potential victory, as limited as it may be, all European peoples would benefit. That's why it is necessary for those French and European forces who have hope in the renewal of democracy to positively answer the calls of Syriza to build European solidarity around Greece and the Greek people. The perspective of a referendum urgently requires the reinforcement of this solidarity"

Slavoj Zizek: "The struggle that goes on is the struggle for theEuropean economic and political Leitkultur.The EU powers stand for the technocratic status quo which is keeping Europe ininertia for decades. In his NotesTowards a Definition of Culture, the great conservative T.S.Eliot remarkedthat there are moments when the only choice is the one between heresy andnon-belief, i.e., when the only way to keep a religion alive is to perform asectarian split from its main corpse. This is our position today with regard toEurope: only a new "heresy" (represented at this moment by Syriza) can savewhat is worth saving in European legacy: democracy, trust in people,egalitarian solidarity. The Europe that will win if Syriza is outmaneuvered isa "Europe with Asian values" (which, of course, has nothing to do with Asia,but all with the clear and present tendency of contemporary capitalism to suspenddemocracy). We from Western Europe like to look upon Greece as if we aredetached observers who follow with compassion and sympathy the plight of theimpoverished nation. Such a comfortable standpoint relies on a fateful illusion- what goes on in Greece these last weeks concerns all of us, it is the futureof Europe which is at stake. So when we read about Greece these days, we shouldalways bear in mind that, as the old saying goes, de te fabula narrator."

"The behavior of the Troika today is a disgrace. One can scarcely doubt that their goal is to make it clear that defiance to the northern banks and the Brussels bureaucracy will not be tolerated, and that thoughts of democracy and popular will must be abandoned. Other than power, there is no reason to continue with the shameful farce in which French and German banks profit from the suffering of the people of Greece."The debt should have been radically restructured long ago, or simply declared “odious” and cancelled. Today, Greeks are offered a miserable choice between two painful alternatives. One can only hope that their brave resistance to the brutal assault will encourage global solidarity that will save them and others from the harsh fate dictated by the masters."